


After Hours at Disney

by Interrobam



Category: Disney Princesses
Genre: Background Femslash, F/F, Gen, Gossip, Misses Clause Challenge, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:02:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interrobam/pseuds/Interrobam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At eight o' clock the floor of Jasmine's castle twittered, like so many crickets, with the sound of bobby pins hitting tile. The lot of them had had their hair up far too long; as they untangled the ribbons and flowers, the jewels and tiaras, they sighed and scratched their scalps with painted nails until their hair went flyaway. </p><p>Happy holidays PhynixCaskey!</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Hours at Disney

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PhynixCaskey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhynixCaskey/gifts).



At eight o' clock the floor of Jasmine's castle twittered, like so many crickets, with the sound of bobby pins hitting tile. The lot of them had had their hair up far too long; as they untangled the ribbons and flowers, the jewels and tiaras, they sighed and scratched their scalps with painted nails until their hair went flyaway. Shoes, for those that wore them, went next. Kicked into the corner with prejudice, they knocked against the stone with the sound of hooves on cobblestone. The girls who were bolder, or perhaps grew up with too many sisters to care, took the buttons and laces of their bodices to task right there, and let the fabric of the skirts pool airily around their ankles. The others excused themselves to secluded corners and powder rooms: loosen their stays in privacy.

It was Jasmine's turn to host, so it was in her palace that they congregated, her eyes that watched them explore with satisfaction. She may not have been a maternal girl, but she liked to cause others' happiness, to know that she had made her friends at ease. The princesses knew their way through the rooms of her palace, so she left them to their changing to make sure that everything was in order. She spotted, beyond an archway, a white shape.

Jasmine made a tsk tsk sound in the back of her throat as she came closer and spotted the lurking Sultan. She knew her father liked hosting the princesses; the sound of high voices echoing through the halls reminded him of her girlhood, running in the gardens with her mother. But he knew the rules: ladies only.

"Go on, I know you have your own business to attend to!" she shooed him.

"Now Jasmine, I was merely trying to make sure everything was alright. If you need anything-"

"We'll call, yes. Now _go_." Jasmine watched with scrutinizing eyes as her father retreated to his room.

As corsets and gloves were abandoned, replaced with nightshirts and shifts, the princesses began walking, running, skipping, down the halls. Their laughter and whispers echoed as they crossed the archway into the guest room, reclining against pillows and wrapping blankets around shoulders.

It was a large, round room filled with cushions and comforters. Narrow windows carved into the wall allowed one to peer out into the dark night. There was not much to see across the dark desert, but the pleasure of feeling the cold bite against one's cheek, the relief of turning away and facing the warming fire pit in the center of the room, kept them curious. From this pit to the walls there spiraled an intricately patterned mosaic, all brown and white and golden. As the night crept on the fire would warm the tiles to the touch, and stockings would be abandoned as naked toes pressed into grout. There was a bed there, covered with a gauzy canopy and far too many blankets, but they much preferred to pile on top of the pillows strewn across the floor, peering at each other through the fire that made their shadows dance. Glass lanterns, their wicks floating in heavy yellow oil, sent a sweet smell through the room. They hung from the ceiling on chains, surrounding the tent of thick cloth that funneled the smoke from the pit into the night air.

Not every princess could make it to every sleepover, tonight it their company was made up of Pocahontas, Merida, Tiana, Kida, Snow White, Ariel and, of course, Jasmine. There were other guests not of royal blood: Charlotte, Megara, Mulan, and Jane. Though the tradition had begun with a gathering of Princesses, these days it wasn't as important to have a kingdom as it was to have duties to complain of and gossip to spread.

And these were to be had in abundance.

Pocahontas and Kida, having the least cumbersome clothes to change to and from, arrived first. They wrestled playfully for a particularly cushy space near the fire, speaking an infinite resource of languages as they grappled. They'd find their way to English when there were more girls about, for the simple commonness of it, but for now they relished each other as polyglots.

Mulan was the third arrival, followed by Merida. One of the newest additions to the guest list, Merida had dreaded attending these sleepovers until she realized that here too were girls sick of formality and rules. The four of them would gather around one another, forming a flock of tomboys. Away from the courts and reporters, they could noogie and burp with impunity.

Ariel would sometimes find herself a part of this crowd, but that night she and Jane arrived together and found a mutual cushion to discuss new worlds and the grey areas between species. Snow White, though the youngest of them, was a veteran of countless sleepovers past. An old fashioned girl, she kept her hair tucked neatly beneath a cap and averted her eyes from the naked stomachs and bare calves around her. Megara, the type to be fashionably late, slunk in amidst the chaos of dividing up floorspace, and Jasmine followed her, making a brief count of heads.

"Where's-"

"So sorry!" came a lilting call from behind her, where Charlotte and Tiana stood at the entrance way to the room.

Charlotte was the only one of them who had changed into something that was, if at all possible, more opulent than their daytime fare. Her pajamas had with eyelet lace and pink ribbons at her chest and wrists and a skirt you could host a circus under. The other girls decided it would be impolite to ask how she planned to get any sleep in a hoop skirt. She apologized profusely for her lateness as she navigated her way to a free space, her cheeks red enough to give Snow a run for her money. Tiana followed her, making sure her skirt didn't get too close to the fire, as Charlotte stumbled over her "excuse me"s and "your majesty"s.

The girl still mooned over the princesses, her pulse like a rabbit's, even after they had told her that any friend of Tiana's is a friend of theirs, even after Tiana herself had pointed out that a fair amount of them weren't even, technically, royalty.

"Lottie needed a bit of help changing" Tiana explained sheepishly, herself in a plain nightgown with a silk cloth tied around her hair.

With everyone finally gathered together, they began to chatter in small ways. They inquired about recent balls, friends of friends, crops and weather. This was a pretense, of course, and a thin one at that, each of them were eager to move from vapid small talk and onto the real gossip.

“So,” Megara began, tactless (to the envy of the others) as always, “what do we think of the new girls?”

“They seem lovely,” Snow said, quick and high as a bird as soon as Meg's voice had trailed off, her placid smile urging the others to be kind.

“Seeing them together makes me miss my own siblings,” Ariel sighed, hugging her pillow.

“I can'na say the same” Merida scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“I can't help but notice that Elsa isn't... attached to anyone” Jane said.

“Ain't she?” Charlotte blurted, then flushed, to a chorus of “oooh”s from the others.

“Are you interested?” Pocahontas teased, eyes shining.

“'Oh Elsa, I've never been with a _queen_ before'” Merida sang as Charlotte buried her head in her hands.

“Oh, stop it y'all.” Tiana put her arm around her friend's shoulder. “Merida, you don't see us teasing you about Lilo.”

Merida's cheeks turned the color of her hair.

“Och, fine. I'll lay off.”

“Are you planning to ask her?” Kida grinned.

“Oh, oh not when she's just gotten here- she hasn't even come to sleep over yet.” Charlotte shook her head.

“It's been almost a week” Tiana pointed out.

“Oh but I _couldn't_...”

“We can help!” Ariel offered, excited by the idea.

“I can find out if she has favorite flowers.” Snow winked.

“You could ask her out riding,” Mulan considered, inciting a flood of ideas.

“No no, she'll want to have dinner!”

“Why not a nice walk in the woods?”

“You could always go antiquing.”

“Looking at a bunch of old junk, boring! Take her somewhere new!”

“Show her your home.”

“No no, go visit her place.”

“Oh, your majesties.” Charlotte giggled. “Thank you, I'll be sure to remember your advice.”

“Well, now that that's settled,” Jasmine interjected “What about that new reporter, has he been at your press conferences as well?”

“The one who keeps asking about how we stay 'in shape'?” Kida rolled her eyes.

“Oh _right._ ” Pocahontas wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Who?” Jane cocked her head.

“Oh right, you don't have to deal with press,” Jasmine smiled. “Those of you who aren't princesses don't have to worry about that, but-”

Mulan cleared her throat.

“Sorry, _most_ of you don't have to worry, but it basically mean we have to gather around once a month to talk about our kingdoms.”

“This new boy, he keeps askin' us about our exercise routines an' how we 'keep slim.'” Merida rolled her eyes. “Like there ain't anything more interestin' to be on about.”

“Thousands of years of technological progress and he wasn't to know if the crystals are good for my skin” Kida laughed.

They broke off into small clusters once more to share personal examples, commiserated with one another, for another hour. Conversation was petering out, hands pressing to mouths to stifle yawns, when Merida exclaimed that she was hungry.

"Isn't there anythin' ta eat around here?" the rest of the girls, suddenly aware of their own hunger, looked to Jasmine.

"Well, there's always _something_ in the kitchens" she mused, eyes sparkling with mischief.

Tiana put up a noble fight, explaining that crepe pans were not for baking cookies on, that those spices were _expensive_ , that they were going to ruin that pasta maker if they didn't stop right now, and that _no one_ needed that much syrup in their milkshake dear _lord_. Snow White helped her in this mission; though she was less familiar with the technical names of cooking utensils, she knew for a fact that putting that much butter into frosting was just going to make it runny. Ultimately, however, the rest of the girls did whatever they pleased, and there was nothing to do but join them in their experimentation.

At the arch of an hour they had assembled their various ingredients in a cake pan and stuck it the whole soupy mix into the oven. Tiana's meddling had assured that it would come out more or less edible, and in the meantime they snacked on fruit and ice cream. They stuck hard frozen grapes into their cheeks and sucked warmth into them, they picked at the skins of blood oranges until their fingernails were dyed red. Once the cake was ready they smothered it in all sots of frosting, drew flowers and hearts out of chocolate sauce. They each took slices in hand, too busy and bustling to bother with plates. Their voices echoed against the high ceiling, coming back to them distorted, evoking more giggles.

Once the cake had been reduced to crumbs they took their party back upstairs, sucking on the backs of spoons and wiping frosting on each others' noses. They resumed their places on the floor, singing catches of popular songs back and forth, sharing riddles and making faces. Megara, with much mischief, took out a dusty book with dogeared pages and began reading some of the _good bits,_ inciting giggles all around.

Soon the ceiling had become stained with the smoke of the oil lamps, the tiles around the fire hot against heels, and eyelids heavy. The princesses, or royal and common blood alike, fell into soft tangled piles. Their breathing slowed, chatter became whispers became mutters became snores. Jasmine took up a pole that rested against the wall of the room, snuffed the lamps, allowed the fire to dwindle to hot, sweat smelling coals.

At one o' clock the walls of Jasmine's castle rustled, like so many fields, with the sound of low breathing.


End file.
